Rhode Island’s ban on Facebook in schools too dumb to be a joke

By staff and wire services reports

June 30th, 2011

On Thursday, the Rhode Island legislature passed HB 5941, an “anti-bullying” measure that, among its other provisions, imposes a blanket ban on the use of “social networking sites” (whatever those are, post-web 2.0) on school grounds, reports Adam Goldstein, attorney for the Student Press Law Center. Because as everyone knows, anyone who encounters another user on a website is immediately bullied into submission. Right? There’s so much wrong with this bill that it’s hard to know where to start. What is a “social networking site,” really? The bill doesn’t define it…